


The Afterlife

by supercalvin



Series: 13 Nights of Halloween [9]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 17:32:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2516066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supercalvin/pseuds/supercalvin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, what’s your wifi password?”<br/>“For the love of God!” Gwen yelled, “Merlin you are dead. You do not need a wifi password.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> Slightly inspired by this interview: [Aziz Ansari Feels for Ghosts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWotMwAJ6rg#t=214)

“Hey, what’s your wifi password?”

“For the love of God!” Gwen yelled, “Merlin you are _dead_. You do not need a wifi password.”

“Excuse you.” Merlin huffed, “I’ll have you know my mobile is fully functioning.”

“Really? Call me right now.”

Merlin glared at her, not even moving his ghostly hand to get his mobile out of his pocket.

Her phone started ringing.

“Alright fine.” She sighed exasperatedly. “But can’t you just use your Ghostly Internet Coverage or whatever?”

“Come on, that will cost money.”

“What _money_!? You’re a ghost!”

“Yes! So I can’t exactly get a job and pay for wifi.”

She made a noise through her nose that said she was completely done with Merlin. “Fine. The password’s ‘Merlin is an idiot.’ All lowercase, no spaces.”

“ _It is not_.”

“Try it.”

He pulled out his mobile and typed in the password. It worked. Huh. Wait a minute…“Hey!” he said in an offended tone.

“If you’re going to haunt my apartment: my rules, my wifi.” She turned to walk down the hallway.

“Yeah? Well who’s going to help you before your next date with Lance?” Merlin shouted back.

Gwen’s voice sounded from her room “Shut up and tell me which shirt would work better.”

Gwen had only been in Merlin’s apartment for a month, but it hadn’t taken long for them to become close friends. Despite Merlin being a ghost, Gwen hadn’t been too frightened of him, especially once she figured out he was just a bloke that had accidently died and now his soul was stuck in this world.

It was a complete fluke, how he died. He’d been on his way to work, biking down the street. A driver didn’t see him and the next thing he knew, he was waking up in his apartment and no one could see him. It didn’t take that long to figure out what happened. He found out that for such a new building, it was actually over flowing with paranormal activity. An elderly man named Gaius had died a few years back on the second floor and he was the one who explained to Merlin what had happened to him.

As it turned out, Gaius wasn’t the only ghost in the building either. A friendly ghost named Gwaine lived on the fourth floor where he messed with anyone walking down his hallway. A particularly mean ghost named Morgause muttered around the manager’s office on the first floor (Merlin was convinced she was plotting their dooms, though Gwen told him he was already dead so it didn’t matter). A seductive and slightly succubus-like creature named Lamia haunted an apartment on the third floor (He steered clear of her). The only ghost who had been dead longer than five years resided in the basement. The basement had been built one hundred years before the new structure, which was where a spirit called Kilgharragh reigned. It wasn’t exactly a very frightening kingdom since all that was in the basement were the washers and dryers.

Then there was the handsome ghost on the top floor. It was really sad that Merlin was still thinking about worldly pursuits in his after-life, but old habits die hard. Literally.

Arthur Pendragon didn’t talk to any of the other ghosts and he hardly ever left the top floor. The only reason Merlin knew his name was because Gaius had known. He’d only seen him once. Merlin had been socializing with the other ghosts, flitting through walls just for fun and he had run straight into Arthur. His breath (if he had any) had been blown away. Unfortunately though, the man had looked at Merlin, told him to get out of his apartment, mind his own business, and then he disappeared. Merlin hadn’t had the nerve to go to the top level again.

“So why don’t you go talk to that sexy ghost on the top level?” Gwen said.

" _Gwen_.” Merlin groaned as he floated above the bed. “Come on. I’m dead, it doesn’t matter.”

“You were just asking for my wifi password and _this_ doesn’t matter? It could be the love of your _death_.” She teased.

“Har-har.” Merlin stuck out his tongue. “No. He seemed like a prick the one time I saw him.”

“You also said that his ghostly light shown like the sun and that you wanted to bang him into the next life.”

“That too.” Merlin shrugged.

“Just go up and talk to him. Ask him if he wants to socialize with the other ghosts.”

“I can’t just _talk_ to him! What would I even say?”

“I don’t know. Ask him how he died?”

“I can’t just ask someone _how they died_!” Merlin screeched in a scandalized tone.

“Jesus, I don’t know ghost etiquette. Just go ask him for a shag. Be a lanky incubus and seduce him.”

“ _Gwen_.” Merlin whined.

“Oh shut up.” She laughed as she snapped her purse shut. “I’ll be out with Lance until late, don’t wait up. _Go talk to him_.”

“Meh” Merlin whined again.

Merlin floated outside Arthur’s apartment on the top floor for ten minutes. He couldn’t knock on the door because that would alert the living person inside, not the ghost. He didn’t think he should just go inside either because that seemed rude. Not that other ghosts had a problem with going into places that they shouldn’t. Technically all ghosts were in a place they shouldn’t be.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Merlin shrieked. It wasn’t a particularly frightening ghostly shriek either. It was a shriek of someone who fell over too many times and was surprised easily. He held his hand over his heart even though it didn’t beat anymore.

“ _Jesus_ , you scared me.” He huffed, turning around to see Arthur standing behind him. He was just as handsome as Merlin remembered, and yes, he still glowed with a ghostly light akin to the sun. Unfortunately, Arthur didn’t look happy to see Merlin. His arms were crossed and he looked annoyed at Merlin’s presence.

“Er, hi.” Merlin waved awkwardly.

Arthur waited.

Merlin cleared his throat. “Well, I just wanted to um. Well, a couple of us ghosts were going down to Mrs. Jenkins’ apartment to watch the next episode of Doctor Who. She always falls asleep and leaves the telly on so we can watch whatever afterward. And I’ve never seen you there and I thought maybe it was because you didn’t know about it. So I was wondering if you wanted to go?” Merlin’s voice rose into an embarrassingly high pitch by the end.

Arthur didn’t say anything.

“It’ll be fun?” Merlin offered hopefully.

Now Arthur didn’t look annoyed, only amused, as if Merlin fumbling was stupid but clearly funny. “Thanks, but no thanks.” And then he disappeared. Merlin cursed, partly because he was disappointed and partly because he would have to think of something else to get Arthur to talk to him.

The thing about Kilgharrah was that you couldn’t actually see him. Not only could the living not see him, but neither could any of the ghosts. It made Merlin uneasy every time he went down to the basement (which wasn’t very often in the first place).

“You’re stuck in this world for a reason, Merlin.” The voice was saying. Merlin floated in and out of the washers (He’d always wanted to know what it would be like in one of those) as he thought about what Kilgharrah had said.

“Like what? The only person I left was my mum and I made peace with her. She saw my ghost and she knew I was okay. Well. _Not okay_. But at least I was happy.” Merlin crossed his legs as he floated above one of the washers.

“You have to figure that out for yourself.” Kilgharrah said ominously.

“You seem to know what it is. Can’t you tell me?” He asked.

“It’s yours to find, Merlin.” The voice said. He sounded more annoyed than ominous this time.

Merlin sighed and decided to ask a different question.

“What do you know about Arthur? The ghost on the tenth floor, you know: blond, fit, and hates talking to anyone.”

Kilgharrah laughed and Merlin felt like he was being mocked. Hey! He was allowed to have a crush! Even in the afterlife.

“Perhaps you should talk to him yourself.” He said. If Merlin could see him he would have said that Kilgharrah was smirking at him.

“Well I tried that! He keeps disappearing on me. What a jerk.”

“If he’s a jerk, why do you care?”

Merlin groaned, crossing his arms in defiance. “Now you sound like Gwen.” Merlin left the ominous voice to go and haunt another room.

“Alright. I give up.” Merlin held up his hands as he paced the hallway on the top floor. “Wherever you are, I want you to know that I’ve been trying to think of something so I can talk to you for over a week and _I give up_. Are you really this antisocial? It’s not that hard. Here, I’ll start: My name’s Merlin Emrys. I died last year when I was run over by a car and now I haunt my old apartment where a nice woman named Gwen lets me use her wifi.”

“You really are a strange one, Merlin.”

Merlin screamed again as Arthur materialized right in front of him. He had been hoping he was talking to air and that Arthur wouldn’t have heard any of that.

“My name’s Arthur.”

Merlin stared at him wide-eyed, surprised that Arthur was talking to him at all.

“I was murdered two years ago when my sister poisoned me.” Arthur raised a brow at Merlin, who was sure that his face was an expression of pure astonishment. “Now if you don’t mind?” Arthur disappeared.

“Shit.” Merlin hissed and then went down to his own apartment where he could lament his own stupidity to Gwen.

“Change the channel.”

“You can do it yourself.”

“The remote’s too far away.” Gwen whined as she reached for the remote which was on the table, only a foot away.

Merlin sighed and flicked his hand so that the channel changed for her.

“ _Thank you_ ” she sing-songed.

They watched the show in silence until Gwen brought up the subject Merlin had hoped she dropped. “So do you think Arthur’s stuck in this world because he’s plotting his sister’s demise?  He might be one of those bad ghosts. You know, like the ones you see on Supernatural.”

Merlin groaned, “I don’t want to talk about Arthur.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Fine.” He crossed his arms and pouted. “I have a crush on a murdered man who is plotting his revenge. My afterlife is just peachy.”

“Why are you surprised he was killed? He was young and not everyone dies by accident, _Merlin_.” She said with a meaningful look to him.

“Okay, fine. Admittedly, I should have thought of this, but come on! I was focused on his pouty lips, glorious pectorals, and ethereal glow.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

This time Merlin wasn’t the only one who screamed. Gwen’s screech probably woke up her neighbors since she was alive, but Merlin’s scream was so loud that he wondered if the living heard it.

“ _Give a little warning would you?_ ” Merlin hissed, clutching at his silent heart.

“Jesus, I’m never going to get used to this ghost business.” Gwen said as she rubbed her face. She looked up at Arthur, who stood next to the television as he watched the pair of them recover from their scare.

“How much did you hear?” Merlin squeaked uncertainly.

“Something about revenge and then my ethereal glow.” Arthur’s smirk showed how smug he was feeling. Merlin wanted to crawl into a hole and die a second time.

“I’m not going to murder my sister, by the way.” Arthur said. “She was arrested a year ago.”

“Oh.” Merlin said distractedly. Arthur was in Gwen’s living room, looking out of place and a little bit awkward. Arthur had never looked awkward, only smug and arrogant. “Sorry, but why are you here? Last time I checked you don’t leave the top level.”

“Eh…” Arthur looked confused as he looked at Merlin, like he wasn’t sure how to answer. “I was just…You haven’t been by…I was wondering if you were okay.”

Gwen made a snorting noise and Merlin tried to elbow her, but his elbow went through her. He ended up falling and seeping through the sofa. He flailed a little as he sprang up and ended up standing in the middle of the coffee table.

“Right.” Merlin straightened out his clothes. “Well…I’m fine. Yes. Still here. Dead as ever.”

“Oh my god.” Gwen groaned. “Just shag, would you?”

“ _Gwen_!” Merlin squeaked at her, wondering if he could blush when he was dead. Frantically, Merlin looked to Arthur who indeed was blushing, but he didn’t look affronted.

“What? You’re _dead_. Make the best of the afterlife.” She gestured to Arthur.

“That’s not how an afterlife works.” Merlin whined.

“Can I borrow Merlin for a moment?” Arthur cut off their argument.

“Er” Merlin said eloquently as Gwen said, “Yes, please.”

Arthur held out his hand and Merlin tentatively took it. When his hand touched Arthur’s, it didn’t fall through like when he tried to touch Gwen. Arthur’s hand was warm and solid underneath his fingers. Then suddenly they were in another place, neither of the living or the dead. It was all white and there was nothing but space and white.

“Where are we?”

“I didn’t mean to go here.” Arthur said uncertainly as he looked around. “I meant to go to my old apartment.”

“Where’s _here_?” Merlin asked. Merlin felt a chill run up his spine.

“I don’t know.” Arthur was still holding his hand, and with the creepy feel of the unknown place, Merlin held on tighter. “Sometimes I end up here and I don’t know how I got here. I think it’s the place in between the living and the dead.”

“If you’ve been here, why haven’t you moved on?” Merlin kicked at the ground, but there was nothing there, only unseen space.

Arthur shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve tried. Believe me I’ve tried for the past two years. I’ve walked on for what felt like miles. I’ve called out. I’ve tried everything. Nothing happens.”

So they walked for a while, because that’s what it felt like they should do. For some reason Merlin felt like he should just walk. He felt this urge inside him that told him to walk.

“So you were worried about me?” Merlin smirked at Arthur, who ended up bumping his shoulder with Merlin’s.

“You’ve been amusing me for a month and then nothing. I lost my entertainment.”

“ _Sure_.” Merlin’s smile spread across his face. Arthur looked less ghostly here, despite the creepy setting. Arthur looked solid and alive. It was very distracting. So for once he listened to Gwen’s advice and decided that he was dead and if Arthur hit him, it wouldn’t matter.

Merlin pulled Arthur’s hand, making him stop and pecked him on the lips. For something that took so much of Merlin’s courage, it was a very quick kiss. Arthur looked surprised, his eyes wide and his lips parted. But then he pulled Merlin closer, tightening his grip on Merlin’s hand and kissed him properly.

Merlin had this odd feeling that he’d kissed Arthur before. The way they kissed felt like they had done this hundreds of times: gentle, happy, and familiar. He leaned closer and Arthur knew the perfect angle so that they wouldn’t stumble together and his hands came to rest easily on Arthur’s sides, as if he had always done this. It was a simple kiss, but that was what made it so strange because it felt like they had done it before.

When they pulled apart, Arthur was much more than what Merlin had seen before. He wasn’t just the ghost from the top level of his building, he was _Arthur_. Merlin didn’t know what that meant, but suddenly Arthur was more than himself.

“I’m guessing you feel the déjà vu also?” Arthur asked. If he had had breath, it would have ghosted across Merlin’s cheek.

“Yeah.” Merlin swallowed and leaned his forehead against Arthur’s. “You too?”

Arthur nodded and they kissed. At first Merlin thought that the feeling of falling was because of the kiss or the déjà vu, but then he noticed that they really were falling and swirling through the white space. It was dizzying and disorientating but before he could shout out, he was on his feet again.

“Wha-?” Merlin gasped as he held onto Arthur’s arms.

The looked at each other, making sure the other was alright. When they noticed that everything was alright, they looked around and saw the Pearly Gates.

“This can’t be right.” Arthur said as he eyed the shining entrance.

“ _That was it?_ I had to kiss a man to get into heaven?” Merlin’s voice rose in doubt as he evaluated the gates.

Then a man appeared in front of them and said, “Welcome.”

They looked at each other and back at the man. “Kilgharrah?” Merlin asked, recognizing the voice from the few visits into the basement.

“Correct. I’m glad you finally figured out what was keeping you in the realm of the living.”

“What?” Merlin squeaked. “ _Arthur_ was what was keeping me here?” Merlin looked to Arthur, who looked just as surpised as Merlin.

“But I didn’t even know Merlin when I was alive!” Arthur protested.

“Exactly.” Kilgharrah said with a wave of his hand. “Your lives were cut too short. You were supposed to meet in life, which is why your souls remained.”

Merlin looked over at Arthur, who only raised a cautious brow at him. Was Kilgharrah saying they were soul mates? If Merlin had lived, would he have met Arthur? Would they have dated? Fallen in love? Spent their life together?

Arthur tightened his hand on Merlin’s and asked Kilgharrah, “Now what?”

“You walk through the gates.” Kilgharrah stepped aside.

“What about Gwen?” Merlin asked, thinking of the only person he was leaving behind in the living world.

“I shall tell the young woman where you and Arthur have gone. Do not worry.” Kilgharrah nodded and smiled. Merlin would miss Gwen, but he knew that she would be glad to have her apartment to herself (and glad that Merlin would finally move on).

“Where do the gates lead?” Arthur asked.

“Even I do not know that. It may lead you to paradise or you might be reborn again.” Kilgharrah gestured for them to step forward, the gates opened for them. They took a hesitant step forward, hands still interlocked.

Merlin turned to Arthur as they approached the gate. “See you on the other side?” he asked.

Arthur leaned in and kissed Merlin, whispering ‘Just in case I don’t get to do that for a while.’

It could be another lifetime until he sees Arthur. Or they could step into Heaven. It was the afterlife and Merlin was only certain of one thing: he would never know what to expect.

With a deep breath, they walked through the gates.

**Author's Note:**

> This came out way too long...oops.


End file.
